2023年4月23日 二格山 - 三玄宮山縱走 A short hike with friends from Japan

二格山山頂のメンバー

コロナ禍は、まだ完全に終結しておらず、変異株が依然と患者数を増やしている。しかし、3年の年月を経て、警戒レベルを下げ国際旅行も復活中である。日本から台湾に訪れるにも制限はなくなり、今回三人の友人が日本から訪れ、20名の台湾メンバーと一緒にハイキングを行った。日本からの三人のうち一人、Dさんは五年前と四年前にそれぞれ一回台湾で一緒に登山をした。そして、玉山登山を企画したがコロナ禍のため中止を余儀なくされた。この四年間の間に、Dさんはガンを患っていることが判明、腫瘍がすでに大きくて切除できず、入院し化学療法をしたがあまり効果が見られなかったということだ。末期ガンのDさんには玉山登山はちょっ負荷が大きいので、台北郊外のハイキングということで台湾の山仲間と一緒に歩き山上で会食した。

ルートそのものは、11年前に筆者が歩いた時と同じだ。同稜線は、その後何度か歩いている。もともとしっかりした山道であり、多くのハイカーが歩く。今回は多くの登山者に出会った。天気は、すっきりした晴れではなく、遠くはボンヤリとていたが、雲間から時々陽射しが梢を通して地面を照らすこともあった。気温はそれほど高くなく、よいハイキング日和であった。会食は、今までに何度も訪れている東昇園で行った。遊楽客で混雑する貓空のすぐ下にある、この店は先に予約する必要があるが、静かでまた景色も良くお勧めの食事処である。ルートそのものは、上記のように11年前に載せたものと全く同じだ。今回は英語で記述します。

Traversing the mountain range from east to west

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If your doctor declares that you have a last-stage cancer, how do you think you would react? You would be shocked by the unexpected twist of your fate or get depressed and lose your hope for future life? Mr. D (I call him like this to keep his privacy), who came from Japan with his two friends for visit to Taiwan this time, had received such a cruel message from his doctor in spring last year. His tumor was found too large for surgical removal. He had gone through chemotherapy in hospital four times. Each time he lost 8 kilograms of his body weight. Harsh as the therapy was, he kept his spirit high and went up and down the staircase of his hospital to keep his physical fitness while his fellow patients were rather in a state of depression. He have kept hiking, bicycling and bouldering near his home whenever he is out of hospital therapy. He showed me and my friends the same positive and forward-looking attitude throughout our hike. He revealed no sadness nor negative countenance. We all admire very much his braveness to fight the cancer!

By the Dongshengyuan restaurant Maokong just before leaving 

Mr. D came to Taiwan a few times before the Covid-19 pandemic and joined my hike twice, in the year of 2018 and 2019 each. He planed to go to Mt. Jade (玉山) in 2020 with me. The pandemic deprived him of his opportunity. Taiwan's restrictions for international travel have been eased since early this year and he and his friends came to visit.  It would be too much for him to hike up to Mt. Jade so I came up with this moderate hike and a lunch at Dongsheng-yuan (東昇園) restaurant at Maokong (貓空). I called for my friends and twenty of them joined. The route was identical to the one I traveled 11 years ago: Start from Erge park (二格公園) on the Beiyi highway (北宜公路), up to the summit of Mt. Erge-shan (二格山), follow the ridge trail to Mt.Sanxuangong-shan (三玄宮山), down to Mokong for lunch and then further down to Muzha (木柵).

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Start boarding Green 12 bus

I always find a Green 12 bus (綠12) very crowded with mostly hikers. Today is not an exception either. A few friends were already in queue when I arrived there at 7:35, forty minutes prior to the scheduled departure. Mr. D and his friends show up no later. The queue has grown very long by the time the bus opens its door for boarding.

Alighted at Erge park bus stop 

Just starting off the Erge park

At 8:15 the bus leaves on time with a lot of passengers standing. On the way about one third of passengers alights at Yinghe-dong (銀河洞) bus stop. The bus keeps going up along the winding highway and arrives at Erge park at 8:40. To our surprise Mr. D is not around. He keeps riding on the bus. Upon my call he realizes and gets off at once. He has managed to thumb a ride back on a friendly car by 9:12. Well, this kind of thing can indeed happen.

looking over the cemetery

White flowers on the road

Twenty of us leave the small park with a big stone tea pot showing Shiding (石碇) by the road at 9:18. The road to the trailhead of Mt. Erge-shan shows up soon and we take right to follow. There is very little traffic on this road while many heavy bikes are passing up and down along the Beiyi highway with thundering noise. Across the valley beyond a cemetery on our right slope extends a hazy scene of endless mountains. The road goes up moderately. White flowers of Youtong trees (油桐樹) are on the road surface at some points. Another season for Youtong flowers has just come.

No. 1 trailhead

A very steep stepway

Twenty-five-minute walk brings us the #1 trail head. There are three of them in all. We take this first one to Mt. Erge-shan. After a short rest we take on the very steep step path, which goes on the sub-ridge coming down from the summit. The gap between each step is rather big and makes you feel hard to go up. All of us struggle for twenty minutes and come to a shelter by a junction to marge a trail from the #2 trail head. Passing another steep section, the second shelter and the second junction, we reach the summit (elevation 677 meters) at 10:10. There a dozen of hikers are already there on the viewing deck.

The first shelter

Bijia mountain range (筆架連峰) viewed from the trail

Second junction to meet a trail from the #3 trailhead

Mt. Erge-shan summit

Steep descent starts

The scenery from the deck is not ideal, rather hazy at best. This is the highest point of our hike today. We have some rest of twenty-five minutes and start our long but basically downward way on the ridge to Mt. Sanxuangong-shan. The trail first goes rather flat for a while and plunges down on a steep slope. Reaching the bottom we climb back on a steep slope with a exposed big sand rocks where aiding ropes are fixed. On a ridge path it is very common to have many ups and downs like this.

Climb back on exposed sandrocks

Mt. Nanbangliao-shan summit

At little after 11:00 we come to the top of Mt. Nanbangliao-shan (南邦寮山 elev. 592m), which is a bit off the main trail. The trail goes further down and reaches at a four-way junction at 11:26 where a little Taoist shrine (土地公廟) stands. There are several hikers resting there and we have a break, too. The trail gets wider from here for a while as it servers as a maintenance road to a large communication tower which stands on a little peak on the ridge. The ridge trail abruptly ends with a small opening for a steep path while the wide road goes further up on our right.

Going down from Nanbangliao-shan

Break at four-way junction with a Taoist shrine

Wide road leading to the tower in front

Looking over the valley of Beiyi highway and mountains beyond

Take the left narrow path

Going down a steep path

We are now back on a narrow dirt track. On our way up we climb over a big slippery looking boulder and reach the small summit of Mt. Maokongjian (貓空尖, elev.562m) at 12:07. This is just a spot on the trail  surrounded by bamboos and trees. If there were no sign attached to the tree, you would likely pass without noticing this is a summit. 

A large boulder on the track

Going down from Mt. Maokongjian

The trail goes by a cliff on the left and plunges down with a two rope sections. It then passes a bamboo shoot farm and two junctions, the first one going down to Shirliufen (十六分) on the Beiyi highway and the second leading to the summit of Mt. Shiliufen-shan (十六分山), finally comes to a junction where a large flat boulder lies at 12:36. 

Climbing down a slippery large boulder

Into a bamboo shoot farm field

A direction sign 

Junction with a flat big rock

Junction to Mt. Shilifen-shan

We take the right fork and go up a gradual grade to another junction. The trail forking on the right also leads to the summit of Mt. Shiliufen-shan. Some members want to go up so I take them to the summit, which is only a few minutes away. The rest of the members will wait for us to return. As soon as we get to the summit and take photos, we return to join the other members to resume our walk to Mt. Sanxuangong-shan. The trail goes further up a little and then turns flat going along the side of the ridge. At 13:05 we finally come to a junction where the right trail leads to the summit of Mt. Sanxuangong-shan (elev. 476m). We take this trail and go up to a shelter called Baishouting (百壽亭, meaning longevity pavilion) beneath the summit. We have a rest under the shelter. This is the last peak on our hike.

At the summit of Mt. Shiliufen-shan

Advancing a flat section

Looking back the peak of Mt. Erge-shan in the distance

Through fallen tree branches

Resting at Baishouting

Going down stone steps

The trail turns to stone steps from the four-way junction, which is just a couple of minutes down from the shelter. The long stone paved trail leads to the Maokong goldora station. There are many tourists around. This is indeed a place for tourists, rather not for hikers. We take a trail on the right side of the station and go down to Dongshengyuan restaurant. We reach there at 13:42. I made a reservation yesterday. As soon as all of us settle down at the tables, foods are brought up. We enjoy food as well as whisky and other spirits that some members have brought for sharing. We indeed have a lot of fun and everybody enjoys it!!

Passing by the gondola station

Dongshengyuan (東昇園) behind the woods

Enjoying lunch

Going down along Chaye old trail

After more than two hours of fun over food and drinks, we finally leave Dongshengyuan at 16:07. Mr. D and his friends decide to take the gondola down while the rest of us go down on foot. The trail called Chaye old trail (茶葉古道 meaning tea leave trail) is a road along which people carried tea leaves down from Maokong in the past days. Tea leaves were an important commodity for export of Taiwan in the 19the century. It is a sandstone paved trail all the way down to Zhianan primary school (指南國小) where we reach at 16:29. We then take Zhinan road (指南路) down and pass through the campus of Zhengzhi University (政治大學) to the bus stop in front of the university gate. We arrived there a few minutes before 17:00 to complete our hike.

Sandstone steps

Passing by Zhinan primary school

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The total time of our hike was 7 hours and 40 minutes, of which more two hours were for our late lunch. We walked approximately 10 kilometers and the total ascent was about 400 meters. The route physical index is 16, meaning a rather easy hike.

Mr. D showed a little fatigue towards the end of our hike but made it all right. He told me that he enjoyed the hike as well as the food. Before he left he told us that this would be his last hike with us as his doctor told him not to expect a long time ahead of him. Albeit his "final" farewell, we all expect a miracle to happen to him because his mental power is such mighty that it might overwhelm his cancer! May God bless him!!